A Witch's Name, A Pirate's Past, and a Time Traveler's Life
by Hearns
Summary: Worf and Julian befriend and help a member of the Soong family adjust to her new era after she is transported to the future through and accident. DS9/ENT Crossover.


This story is my first attempt to write a Star Trek fic.

I have decided to use several of the shows to create a story that you all might like.

This story takes place three years after Star Trek: Nemesis

Also this is a major rewrite of this same story that I posted here about a month ago. So I have done a ton of clean-up on it.

Hope that you enjoy.

Also Q'ra is pronounced as Kira

* * *

**A Story about the Lost**

* * *

Q'ra watched at the Starfleet personnel walked up to the Witch's house. Every child in the colony knew that you don't mess with the Witch. Ever since the Witch scalped a teenaged Klingon Youth and threatened to gut him alive so that she could take his entrails and turn them into Warm Meat pies.

Q'ra gulped hard against that thought. She was part Klingon and part Terrain, and the idea of her little but strong six year-old body being carved up into individual servings for the Witch's nightly meal left her scared. But she had been dared to break in and grab the soccer ball that had been kicked into the Witch's courtyard earlier that day.

Why had it been her to kick the ball into this place while playing soccer in the field?

Why?

But seeing the Starfleet personnel come up to this place she thought she had a chance. Maybe they were here to arrest her for eating children on different colonies.

Kneeling down by the street side planter she listened to the two officer's talk.

"So Worf... How is Alexander doing?" The Terrain male said to the Klingon next to him.

"He is doing well, he has met a female that makes him happy and they are planning to be joined in marriage."

"Marriage... as in your son is about to get married? Wow... where does the time go?" the Terrain male said looking at his friend.

"Quite quickly... But over the last few years Alexander has proven himself to be of strong character. That and after saving his crew from dying in deliberate act of sabotage, they have called him Fate's Hand."

"Fate's hand..." The Terrain shrugged at this. "So what happened for him to earn such a name?"

"He jettisoned a malfunctioning Warp Core from their ship at full speed and let it slam into the armada of ships pursuing them while using the ship's deflector shield to guide them to safety..."

"Have you thought about having him take the Kobiashi Maru test?"

"Given his history, he might even pass the test."

That was when they knocked on the door of the Witch's house and she came to the door.

"Julian... Oh thank God you are here." With that the Witch moved over and hugged the Terrain like he was an old friend who had come over to comfort her as if she had been scared of the monster in her closet. But it was the way that the Witch looked at the Klingon officer with worry that Q'ra got the feeling that something more was going on. "Come on in." With that the Terrain and the Klingon went into the Witch's house.

If the Witch was going to eat them or they were here to phaser her behind out of existence, she didn't know given the way the Witch was acting around the two Starfleet officers. Either way she had a chance to get the ball back for herself and the rest of the children in the colony. Maybe even save the two officers from being eaten in the process as well.

Quickly Q'ra sprinted across the street and started to climb the wall praying that no one saw her as she did this. She was already in enough trouble as it was sneaking out of her house past her bed time.

As Q'ra made it over the ledge of the wall she saw that there were vines growing up the wall on the other side. The vines might make it easier for her to get out when she got the missing balls. Given that the Witch was welcoming the two Starfleet officers into her house as if they were old friends of her's had Q'ra start to be cautious before she continued along.

Q'ra quickly ducked her head down to keep from being seen as the Starfleet officers and the Witch moved through the courtyard of the house before entering the main living area. Seeing that going down the vines the inched up the wall to where she was at wouldn't take too long. But all that changed when Q'ra saw the soccer ball . . . or rather as she saw that there was a planter full of them.

How many balls had been kicked over the courtyard wall of the Witch's house?

Liberating the ball that had started this mess wouldn't just to top this. But freeing the rest of the balls that had been lost to the Witch would bring her **_great_** honor and status among the Colony's children. That was when she grabbed hold a vine and stared her way down. The green lushness of the leaves felt sticky against her small hands as she worked her way to the ground.

That was when the vines reached out to grab her. Q'ra started to kick a leg free from the plant before she continued her way down. That was when the plant reacted and reached out and actually grabbed onto her. Q'ra felt the plant wrap around her limbs and around her torso. With each kick and punch, the plant continued wrapping itself around her.

She didn't want to die like this... She didn't want to become the fixings for the Witch's pie... That was when the she tried to head-butt the plant and it decided to grab her by the hair.

The Pain was horrible... Q'ra fought through the pain and the tears until she couldn't and she screamed. That was when images of her being stripped naked, strapped to a table. Q'ra could see the Witch taking out a knife and slitting her belly open as the whistle of a boiling kettle could be heard in the background as her innards were being dropped into a pot to be cooked.

Suddenly the vines started let go of her as they slowly placed her on the ground. With that Q'ra took a few steps back and bumped into the Witch.

Spinning around she darted to the planter full of balls and started to throw them at the Witch.

Ball after ball was thrown at the Witch who dived for cover behind another planter. That was when she saw the ball she had come for had rolled by the Witch.

No... This wasn't turning out as she planned. Grabbing a flutter ball that Jeremy had lost, Q'ra threw it at the Witch before scooping up the ball she had come for and started for a mad dash to the courtyard door.

Suddenly Q'ra found herself being grabbed and picked up by her sides. With that she screamed out like crazy.

"Let go of me Witch... I don't want to be turned into pie filling... I will be good, I just wanted to get my ball and the rest of the balls and toys that have landed in your yard and return them... _PLEASE_ . . . **_don't eat me!_**"

Then as quickly as she was picked up she was ushered over to a chair and placed on it. Looking up she saw the Klingon that had come in to the Witch's house minutes earlier.

"A child such as yourself should have more honor in sneaking into one's house." Q'ra gulped as the Witch who now was looking around her courtyard was biting her lip in distress.

"You really think that I am a Witch!?" Q'ra was on the defensive fearing another trick from the Witch.

"You are one... You took away a knife from a Klingon boy and his friends and threatened to bake them into pies. You moved like a shadow when you scalped a boy. You don't let people come over to your house and have dinner with you. And you are so strong that even the mightiest Klingon Warrior can't beat you." The Witch looked at the girl with regret and this was the time when the Witch looked like all strength in her legs was about to leave her.

"I'm sorry..." The Witch looked like a blow had been struck against her.

"Persis... You know what this girl is talking about." There was a nod from the Witch.

"Yes... A few months ago a group of Klingon youth decided to perform a bloodletting ritual and decided to pick little old me as the target." There was a sigh. "Well I was able to fight them off with no problem given my superior strength and one of the kids... Well the one with the knife, I decided to teach him a lesson after pinning him to the ground by giving the little snot a haircut." Looking up the Terrain male leaning back in her chair she raised her hands. "Hey... I didn't take a pound of flesh off of the kid's scalp. I only took a fist full of hair."

"What is this about the cooking the children up." This was when she winced under the Klingon's words.

"Ah... That..." there was a slow nod from the Witch as she realized that she had been caught doing something wrong. "That came from a spur of the moment of just trying to scare the kid. The only thing I could think of at the time was a scene from the Shakespearian play Titus. Specifically the scene where the mad father in the story decided to get a hold of the two youths that raped his daughter. The scene where Titus killed the brothers and cooked them up to serve to their wretched conniving mother for all the harm they had done." With that Q'ra gulped at that image. The Witch wasn't going to eat her pie... her pie was going to be served up to her mom as an evening meal... With that she clung onto the Klingon officers' leg seeking protection behind the large warrior. "Hey... I filed a report with the local authorities." The words stuck to the air like they had no weight to them.

"Then... Why are you keeping the balls that bounced in here?" Q'ra said as there was a sigh of defeat in the Witch's voice before she continued.

"I was going to give them back, but no one would knock on the door to ask." This was when the Witch dropped her head into her hands before throwing her had back and groaning. "If I am that scary, you can take all of them." There was a long sigh out of her mouth as she started to cry.

"Persis... are you okay?" The Terrain male said he moved over to the Witch.

"No Julian. I'm not." The Witch said as she sucked a small drop of nasal drip back into her nose. "I came to this colony to start my life over again and have a fresh start... to make atonement for my past actions over a hundred and seventy-five years ago." The Witch seemed so weak from the revealing of the truth of her past.

"You are over a hundred!?" Q'ra said in shock. She knew that the Witch was old, but this old.

"I turn two hundred fifty next month... hell I was created in a test tube over three hundred years ago."

Three hundred! What was this Witch! Did she eat several Trills during this time? The only person that was that old or was even close to that age was Zee's mom… and she was a Joined Trill at that.

The Witch looked to be less scary and sadder at the statement of saying her actual age.

"Oh, God... why did it have to be a Klingon child? On this night... On this day. The anniversary of the death of my family . . ." The Witch looked hard at Q'ra before sighing hard. "Maybe it is fate that something like this would take place."

"You are planning on telling her about your past? How you came to be here?" the Terrain officer said looking back and forth between Q'ra and the Witch.

"Yeah... Might as well get it out of the way . . . " The Witch was biting her lip as she walked back into the house and a moment later the sound of a replicator going off said that she was creating something. Then walking out the Witch brought out a large mesh bag and started to scoop up the balls and place them inside. "Julian... Worf... Why don't you help me out and tell your parts of the story. I mean you are the two people that helped me through some of the rough times." There was a slight grin from the Witch as she seemed less scary and more like a young adult.

Q'ra got the idea what was about to be learned by her was the Witch's life story and probably why she was so sad and maybe so shy. That was when Q'ra picked up a ball and handed it to the Witch.

* * *

Persis started to pick up the balls as the Little Klingon girl helped her along. The girl's reduced bow ridges looked nearly smooth as she reached out and touched the girl's face. This caused the girl to pull back a little scared and hiss a little thinking that Persis would bite her.

"Sorry..." Persis looked away. "You looked a little like me when I looked younger without the brow ridges." The girl looked a little worried. Given how this child talked about her, she must have scared the living crap out of the local children when she had dealt with those juvenile delinquents.

"So... you said you were going to tell me a story," Persis nodded at this.

"Yeah I was." With that Persis offered her hand out to the girl. "My name is Persis Soong. So what is your name?" Persis said to the girl as she started to get a feel of the Girl's heritage.

"Q'ra daughter of Crom." The girl said a bit scared. Yeah... going on a Shakespeare reading binge and having a broken replicator on the same week didn't help things. Hell auditioning for a part in the local production of Sweeney Todd to play Lucy Barker had been a way to relax and become part of the community. Mostly, it was a way to get close to this one guy that seemed to be attractive in his own way. But what do you say to a kid that you are acting in a musical where the main character is a murdering cannibal just to get close a few individuals that share the same heritage as you, even in a moderate form.

That was when she started to as the girl a few questions and became shocked at how little the girl knew about the early days of the Federation.

"So Q'ra how much do you know about the early Federation?"

"Um, that it was formed a couple of decades after they met the Vulcans. There were a lot of races... Uh... I don't know other than that."

"So you don't know about the space pirates of this time? The aggressive stance of the Klingon Empire to Earth after the Broken Bow incident? Or even the Cold Station Six incident?" The girl shook her head to signal no. "Whoa." Julian's Klingon friend Worf shook his head.

Other than Zefram Cochrane and First Contact, which every child knew because it was a holiday, this girl's education was severely lacking. The girl knew nothing about Eugenics Wars, World War III, or even the Broken Bow /Zendi Crisis. Persis just groaned as she grabbed another ball and threw it into the bag. Well she might as well get the story started by giving a short history lesson.

"Well in the early days before the Federation was formed, it was a semi lawless time. This was a period where Humans were just going out into space and they were quite inexperienced in the ways of the universe." She grinned. "Most of the Alpha quadrant had not been explored at this time and for a few of us... it was a great place to hid." Persis leaned back. "Now for some of these outlaws, one of them was my father Arik Soong, who had gone into hiding after had stolen a batch of genetically modified embryos, which I was one of." Q'ra was listening to the story as she sat enraptured with a ball in her lap.

"You are genetically modified!?" the girl reached out an traced Persis's face some. "Like the Chal chaj'qmey of my people. I heard stories about them... I mean they can do some really neat mind stuff like a Vulcan and can live really long time and rarely get sick."

"Chal chaj'qmey, that is a term I haven't heard of before, but yeah you get the general idea... Most of the stuff that me and my siblings had were along the lines of being really physically strong and fast. Well our father decided to do a supply run and was captured by Earth Authorities."

There was a long sigh from Persis as she remembered the long nights after her father failed returned and started to cry.

"We were about twelve or thirteen at the time. Not big enough to get off planet, or had enough fuel to get too far with the supplies we had. So we went into survival mode and it took us years to make enough fuel to get a small transport pod into space. All we had to do was get a ship's attention and once on board, take it and fly it back to the settlement we were at." Persis looked at Q'ra and bit her lip before she continued. "The Ship we encountered was Klingon."

"Klingon!?" Q'ra said in shock as she looked at this young woman. "How did you take a Klingon Ship? I mean you are not all that strong... are you?" Q'ra looked at Persis as if this part of the story didn't make sense or Persis was much more dangerous than she first thought. "I mean, you would have needed a lot of people to take a Klingon Ship..."

"Q'ra... the ship was a early model Klingon Bird of Prey and it only took two of us, my brothers Raakin and Malik., who didn't just take the ship, they butchered the crew... the entire crew of seasoned Klingon warriors they killed in under an hour with their bare hands."

Persis looked at Worf who had some idea of how fast and strong she was and talking about her kin committing cold blooded murder to this girl shook her to her core. It took Persis a moment to recover from that statement. "Sorry, I..." Sensing how Persis felt, Worf interceded.

"I was raised by Humans Persis. You need not hide the fear of being stronger than others. It is learning to use that strength to aid others that is a true mark of your character." Worf walked over to Persis and knelt by her."This is the story you are trying to tell this little one." Q'ra looked at the Klingon and back at Persis herself. "Finding the strength within, to overcome, to be a better person because of it."

"I wish that the lesson hadn't had to be learned with so much bloodshed." Persis said moving her line of sight from Worf to the cracks in the ground.

"How much blood did you shed?" Q'ra said reaching out to her.

"The Cold Station 12 personnel, Captain Archer, Two of my brothers..." Persis swallowed hard picturing the faces of the innocent she had hurt. Julian started to walk over to say something but Worf stopped him by raising his hand. "That was before my brother Malik got it into his head after we got our father back that taking out a colony of Klingons with a couple of the plagues we had stolen from Cold Station 12 would be enough to muck things up so that no one would come looking for us." Persis shook her head before looking up into the sky with tear filled eyes.

"Father... Father knew that Malik had gone wrong... We knew that we had to stop him. I decided to stay behind and cover his escape in an escape pod and provide cover as he sight help from our very pursuers. "This was when Persis swallowed hard. "I had to stop Malik so I confronted him in our quarters and tried to kill him with a Klingon d'k tahg... I lost the fight and was stabbed in the chest around my lower diaphragm." with this Persis started to wipe away tears as she struggled through the worse of the memory. "Malik took out my last breath with a kiss." With this she looked from the sky and back to Q'ra... "I don't know what made me sicker. Failing to stop my consort, or Failing my father." This was when Persis got really quiet as she felt the weight of the universe on her shoulders.

"So... you were stabbed... How did you get here? Who Saved your life?" Q'ra said realizing that the story was getting close to the present.

"Well, the next thing I know is that I am waking up in a ship's infirmity on a bio-bed. Every muscle in my body screaming and every breath I took like felt like fire." Persis leaned back against a planter and took several controlled breaths remembering the pain. "Right by the bed is standing this Starfleet officer, I know that I am screwed, that I am going to whatever prison Earth or Q'nos will debate of tossing me into. But at the time the only things I am thinking about is: _Did you save the Colony?_ and _Where is my Father?_"

"It is not every day that you learn that the ship you were on had been destroyed and you are the only survivor they were able to find on board from the wreckage. By this time I am able to croak out the last known location where the Escape Pod carrying my father probably would have headed. The next day or so, I fade in and out of consciousness as they shoved Nano-probes into me to repair the damage to my body." With this Persis looked over to Julian.

"Whenever I was able to breathe clearly… I just had to cope with the fact that things were going to be bad for me... The guard standing by the door didn't help either." The long sigh of defeat rolled out with Persis's breath. "It took me awhile to pull myself up and though hurting I pushed myself out of the bed and looked hard around where I was at before I took a few steps and leaned against the wall. Other than some medical staff walking about, I was left alone until I reached out and reached out and hit a force field. That got everyone's attention."

There Persis had said it, she had been a prisoner. "The emotional shock hit harder than pain the force field had put out and I slid down against the wall crying. This was when Captain Worf showed up and started to speak to me." There was a heaviness to Persis's voice but it was understandable. This was the moment everything in her life changed. With that she listened to the seasoned Klingon warrior to speak.

* * *

Worf sat down on the edge of the small fountain that Persis had in the center of her garden. For this Augmented Human who had known nothing but survival and hate most of her life, this garden had been crafted by her as a place of sanctuary. Several of the plants were food producing, but other were significant due to their affiliation with religions pertaining to peace. So much had happened to this woman as he remembered the first time he had met her in the sick bay of the Defiant.

"My first encounter with Persis her took place several years ago as I was on the way to a Klingon colony near the Federation/Klingon border. There was an explosion on a transport that had been running illegal chronometic weaponry and my ship had been one of several that had been assigned for the cleanup." Word looked at the young woman whose story this was and understood to some degree that this was a member of Data's family. "While we were in the process of beaming on board several fragments of debris, there was an error from an anomaly and along with several fragments of debris there was a young humanoid female in her undergarment with a d'k tahg sticking out her side." Worf saw the woman blush, but this was how she had arrived.

"A young Ensign who was recently assigned to the Defiant whose species had been ravaged by the Borg and over the years had developed countermeasures against them. In the process his people had also learned some of their secrets of the Borg and using his knowledge he was able to bring her back to life thinking that she was a survivor from the vessel that had exploded." Worf watched as the enraptured child listened on to this continuing story. "For the most part Persis had asked about if there were any survivors or if we had picked up any escape pods. Both She and I had thought we were from the same time period and we both thought we were speaking about the same vessel.

"When she gave the approximate location of where to look, we started a search. During this time when she was able to regain consciousness for longer periods of time, Persis felt concerned the innocents on the colony and the would-be attack that would have taken place had she been able to succeed in her mission to save innocents." Worf could see the pain in the woman's eyes as he continued on.

"The only reason she was in her undergarments was that she was trying to woo the captain into a trap so that she could kill him and use his access codes to stop the attack." The long sigh from him had the girl looking from him to Persis. "The blade spoke otherwise."

"You were stabbed trying to stop the captain?!" The young girl said as she reached out to woman to see if Persis still had the wound or would react to the place where she had been injured.

"I was..." With that Persis took the girl's hand and placed it over the site of the injury. "I don't have the scar, but there are times I wake up screaming and a grab at the site where I was hurt." This was when Persis got quiet and scared. "It usually get's bad this time of year, and I destroy at least several night shirts in the process clawing at my side." This is when Worf continued with the story.

"When I went to see our guest after we scanned the area of there the escape pod would have been and found nothing at that point she was a bit taken aback." This was when Persis winced. "She believed me to be a member of the Klingon High Command sent to take her away to some prison." This was when Worf's tone changed to an understanding voice.

"I asked her a few questions such as her name, where she had come from. Then her history started to come forth as presented the events as she had told you earlier. That was when the events hit everyone in the sickbay as we realized who and what we had in our custody. When we asked her what the last date she remembered it being May 27, 2154, we had to break the news to her when I asked the computer to state the current date using the Old Earth Calendar as it being 2380. The shock hit her hard as she was processing the information and slid to the floor. The EMH program we had running around walked through the force field and sat by her and gave her a shoulder to lean on." This is when Persis picked up the story from her perspective.

"The only reason that they had the force field up was due to me being a carrier of some weird flu strain and until they got it flushed out of my system, I would have infected the crew. Not because I was genetically modified human." Persis said defeated. "I didn't know whether to be insulted, or thankful."

"Yes, and you were quite moody from all the chemical imbalances from the Nano probes floating around your system." Worf said seeing Persis grin.

"I went from a blind rage to sobbing on the floor with a touch of a button, which scared the crap out of me right after that young Lieutenant, showed me what he was doing." Persis said giggling. "That was until Temporal Investigations started to speak to me, sheesh. I would have preferred to be sent to prison planet given what questions I had to answer and all of the paperwork dumped in my lap." Worf could see that she had slowly adjusted to her new life.

"Yeah, that was until I learned the fate of my father and his quest in artificial intelligence after the death of me and my siblings that things fully hit me on how much an impact the decisions I and the others had made on him."

"That was when you learned that you had family even if you were adopted by Soong." Worf said seeing the young woman grin. He remembered helping Persis read through all of the documentation of Doctor Arik Soong and the events that had shaped his life in the years after her death. The doctor had named several of his projects after this young woman in his quest to perfect artificial life."

"Yeah, that you served with his great-great grandson Commander Data." Persis cried a little feeling a connection to this sibling she had never known. "I mean you were practically writing an opera about the guy and all of the adventures you had speak a lot about the finding of faith when you need it."

"When I was faced with a crisis of faith, he helped me through the darkness and helped forge me into a better warrior because of it." Worf said understanding that like him, Persis was enduring her own crisis of faith as well. Data had helped him make the decisions necessary to become a stronger person and like pounding hammer that forged the first Sword of honor, Persis needed find her shape become the woman she needed to become.

"Just given my heritage and my past... You saw through that, introduced me to Julian, helped me through some pretty dark times."

"You broke a holodeck if I remember correctly when you needed to blow off some steam as the human say, during your adjustment." Worf was grinning at this remembering seeing the young Augment covered in holographic blood as she cut loose from the frustrations she had in those first few weeks of trying to fit in.

"It was your calisthenics program. . . and I swear the Ferengi bartender nearly defecated himself right as I ripped the spine out of one of my opponents and tossed it to his feet when he threatened to shut down the unit.."

"Quark did take note that he would give you some space if you turn over your Dabo winnings." Julian said looking at Persis.

"Well, technically I had to stop playing Dabo, become one of his Dabo girls for about three weeks to pay off the damages I did after the emitter craped out from the strain I placed on it." Persis said as Worf and Julian remembered her outfit.

"And had a Betazoids sense of modesty given that uniform you had." Julian said as Worf and him remembering Persis walking back to her quarters in the nude after work after one of Quarks more hormone driven employees had hidden her off duty clothes out of her locker while she was on shift. "I know that one of his employees hid your clothes, but what did you do that bastard that made him avoid you during the rest of your stay on DS9?"

"Nothing, just acted polite and told him what my heritage was while making him look it up on his little computer tablet while being uncomfortably close to him," Julian winced as Worf remembered the poor sap running to Odo's old office and demanding protection as she walked out of Quarks in the nude at the end of her shift. "But for some strange reason I bonded with the Barkeeps wife and we laughed for hours on end." This was when Persis started to light up remembering Quark's Klingon wife Grilka visiting the station. The two of them had hit it off and had become sisters in many ways. It had been Grilka's influence that had shaped Persis's life in allowing her to develop a moral code of sorts that the young Augment felt comfortable with. "She told me about this place and I came here after I got my debts paid off because she said that it felt like early days of the Empire and I needed to feel wild to feel in control." Persis paused after that. "My instincts ruled me too much to be confined for too long. And I was too smart for my own good when exposed to too much technology."

"It feels good for me too given the environment and texture of the place... given that many of Federation citizens here like the ruggedness of this place. And that one cannot feel ashamed feeling like they have worked hard." Worf said looking around at the architecture that had a frontier feel to it: simple, to the point, and functional.

"Well it is peaceful, but one can cut loose in this place and I don't feel alone in this place given that rest of the folks here have been modified in some way or another." Persis said hearing about some of the history of this place.

"Former settlers of Heavy Gravity Worlds, or planets that had so much Metron Radiation, Bio-Toxins, and a few other things that normal humanoids would be dead in a matter of minutes." Julian said reading out the list from his memory.

"Considering that most of the home worlds of these people were lost due to treaties or environmental damages." Worf said remembering some of the Settlers had been part of a group that Data had been able to convenience to leave their home due to the Sheliak claiming their world as part of their territory. Others had come here due to the devastation to various planets caused by the Dominion War.

"But this is home... Just that..." Persis looked at the girl and Julian and Worf understood the situation.

"Children can be cruel." Worf said remembering his own childhood. There was a light nod from the young woman. "I see..." With that the child started to understand that it was the attitudes of her and other children that had been more harmful than any weapon fired at her.

"You fear me more than... the Borg!" This girl's statement had Persis nodding in agreement.

"Yes... it is just that after everything I have lost, just finding a home where I fit in. Where I don't feel like I am going to break something if I decide to lose my temper." With that Persis kicked over the last of the balls over to the girl. "Just that I am not used to children..." Persis looked the girl and chewed her lip. "They just feel so alien to me."

"You mean... the main reason that you don't interact with us is that, you don't know how to?" The nod was self-explanatory. The little girl who was scared of Persis now had a deeper understanding of the woman.

"I grew up with siblings about the same age... There was no one younger or older than us other than our father and I told you what happened after that." The young girl reached out and traced Persis's face with her fingers.

"Want to learn?" the question took Persis back as Worf and Julian realized that the main reason she was feeling so distraught in her transmissions to them was that she was still lacking some of the finer social skills.

"Accept..." Worf Sighed. "I had a lot to learn about being a parent and about being around children when my son Alexander came to live with me after his mother died." Worf grinned remembering his own trials he endured becoming a parent with his child.

"How did you cope?" Persis said with concern in her voice.

"I failed more times than not, but once i realized that was part of the journey to endure and teach... Some times with bad consequences, but consequences none the less. I realized that we both were finding our bearings and had to become who we needed to be. That and encountering a Time Traveler from the future helped put me on the right course."

"You met another time traveler? When was he from?" Persis said realizing that she wasn't the only person who had been pulled out of time.

"He was from far enough in the future to give me some insight into my son and the man he would become." Worf grinned at this. "He said that I should stop forcing my son into becoming a great warrior and let him find that path he needed to become the man he was to be."

"So dumb luck..." Persis said concerned.

"No... You will become the person you will become because of the decisions you make. If they are honorable and noble, then you shall have honor."

"Try to say that when the local children think you are witch!" Persis said looking at the girl. "Even after you are named after one."

"Wait... you mean you are named after a real witch?" the young Klingon girl said looking at Persis.

"Well it depends on which version you are looking at. Some are said to be old hags, granted wisdom to those who desired it. In other versions they were said to be beautiful and graceful as swans. Myself... I see them as being elemental beings of water and earth." Persis said remembering the meaning of her name.

"So... Not a witch..." Persis nodded in agreement.

"Not a Witch, practicing Buddhist, but defiantly not a witch."

"But the meat pies?"

"Reference to a production of Sweeny Todd..." And there was a faint blush from Persis. "And I sort of a crush on one of the stagehands who is helping with the play." There was a pause as replicator ran again and Persis rolled her eyes. "I think one of those kids messed with my replicator to produce nothing but chicken pot pies for food as a prank. Mostly I have been picking the vegetables out; I really don't like meat all that much!"

"Wait your vegetarian!" Persis seemed to be more relaxed now, given her shift in body language.

"Yeah... Mostly I have been feeding the meat from my pies to a targ that has been coming by here."

"So... Why are the Starfleet officers here?"

"Mostly, I asked them to come here. Worf, was the Captain of the ship that found me, and he has been making contacts with his friends to see if he can get some of my Father's records released to me. And Julian, well he is a fellow Augment like myself. We dated for a little while and he helped get me the job here at the colony. Mostly I don't mind moving cargo around for my day job, but taking educational courses at night is where I have been finding my footing."

"Wait, you go to school for fun!?" the girl said giving Persis the strangest look Worf had ever seen.

"Hey... I have over two hundred years of history to catch up on in addition to the legal and genetics laws to contend with given my past." Persis shrugged. "That and I understand why my father wanted to change some of the proteins in the embryos we stole to make them more passive." There was a slight huff from Persis as she thought back to her father's work. "Stabilizing one little protein sequence so it wouldn't be degraded over the generations would have meant that my people would have had a home world and not be some genetic rarity." she winced. "Damn Ego and Absentmindedness, two sins that bring about the downfall of any civilization."

"Ego, Absentmindedness..." the girl spoke concerned.

"Kahn, Malik, for their egos. Which were huge as nebulas and Kirk for his Absentmindedness for not checking up six months after dropping Kahn off to make his colony of Botany Bay." there was a huff followed by a shrug. "That is probably the reason I survived. I checked those at the door." With that Persis finished adding the last ball to the bag and synched it closed. "Well, that was the last of them." Persis handed the large bag to the girl who took the strap of the bag in her hand.

"Miss Persis..." The girl had the bag of balls and had heaved them over her shoulder. "You can come over to my house for dinner sometime." Persis grinned. "Well thank you." then the girl dropped the bag of balls and rushed over and hugged the young Augment. "You are not so scary. Just been through a lot." Persis slowly put her arms around the girl and reciprocated and cried a little.

"Well, thank you." Persis said as she let go of the girl and watched the child pick up the bag and head for the door. that was when the vines of the plant the girl had gotten stuck in waved at her to say goodbye.

* * *

Q'ra the next day started passing out the balls to the children who had lost them going over the Witch... Persis's fence.

Most of the kids thought that she hadn't done it, but the sheer volume of balls she had not only confirmed the story, but had given some honor to her name.

That was until some older boys came along and decided to cause trouble and took one of the balls from her and tossed them over the fence. The audible bounce then a crash could be heard.

Walking over Q'ra knocked on the door and saw Persis standing there with the ball in her hands.

"Here Q'ra." A rapt gasp could be heard from the children as the ball was handed back.

"So... Was there anything broken?" Q'ra said looking at the older woman.

"No... Nothing really other than some glass bottles that I was going to give to one of my friends to recycle into her art." Persis said leaning against the wall in the black jumpsuit that looked to be a little wet.

"You are wet?" Q'ra said looked at the woman.

"Yeah... I was brushing my teeth and the ball came to a stop in the sink." The looking at the three youths that looked out of place among the children. "I take it that those three are the ones that took away your ball." Q'ra nodded.

"We meet again Klang..." The lead boy stepped back as Persis stared him down. "So... How do you want to do this... me calling your parents, or me giving you a haircut then calling your parents?"

The air seemed to come to a stop as everyone held their breath.

"I will leave these children alone. Hu... Mon." Persis shrugged.

"Looks like things might work out. That and your mom says that I did give you one of the better haircuts you have had in a while." Persis said moving out of the doorway.

"What do you know of my. . . " Klang said in a rage that turned to whimper as in the doorway was staring his mother next to Persis. ". . . Mother." the audible gulp could be heard.

"We have much to talk about son." The very pissed Klingon woman said Persis gave the woman plenty of space to pass.

"Persis... I am sorry about my son's actions... I will ensure that he will not be bothering you again." With that the very irate mother marched over to her son and grabbed him by the arm and started to lead him away.

"Hey... I have no complaints Lady Forza. I am glad that we were able to meet a honorable outcome to our situations." Persis said turning to see another figure come out of her domicile.

"Well I look forward to seeing your role in the theater tonight." the mother said as she turned to her son and spoke in their native tongue about things that Q'ra knew that one was in levels of Targ dung one was wasn't going to shovel out of anytime soon. Then turning to see who had come up through the door Q'ra had seen that it was the human that had come to the house the previous night.

"Thank you Brother Julian." Persis said leaning into him.

"Well that worked out better than I expected." A soft grin came across the woman's face as Q'ra started to understand that Julian was a member of Persis's family.

"Yeah, it was..." Persis seemed a little more normal and less, Witchy... "I mean I grew up having to fight for everything, but this feels strange. To win your battles with words. Not your fists." Persis seemed smaller after this.

"Patience and understanding. Two things I learned by being a doctor." Julian said as Persis looked down at Q'ra and grinned.

"Maybe that is the reason you have succeeded where our processors failed in mending the fences and healing the wounds of the past." With that Julian placed a hand on Persis's shoulder.

"It hasn't been easy, but for every setback there have been the successes." Julian said looking out at the children who were slowly moving about Persis. "Tripping is one thing, learning to trip so that you may learn from others is another thing." With that Persis took Julian's hand on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly before stepping into the sea of children surrounding her.

"So... Q'ra why don't you introduce me to your friends?" with that Q'ra started the introductions and afterwards invited Persis to her house to have dinner. Tonight her mom was making Chicken Fried gagh in blood gravy. Whoever had invented frying meat in batter on Earth had a lot of food taste better; maybe Persis would like it with the corn. Then she remembered Persis was a Herbivore and she winced. She would need to tell her mom that they would need some more vegetables for dinner tonight.

* * *

I hope that you liked this chapter and here are some notes.

I decided to give Persis from the Augment Crisis storyline from Enterprise a second chance. Everyone knows that she got screwed trying to be the perfect lover and daughter in her family. So I decided that a time travel could fix the problem.

Also making Ichab from Voyager serving on the Defiant would provide the technology to bring her back from the dead without mucking with space time all that much.

The Chal chaj'qmey is a reference to the Shatner-verse stories which were a group of Genetically engineered hybrid Klingon/Romulan/Humans created as a worse case-scenario to keep the Romulan/Klingon Empires alive in case of a devastating attack by the Federation.

I have another chapter in progress where we will get some of Julian's point of view on things.

Well hit the review button below and let me know what you think of the story so far.

Hearns


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